1

IRON AGE BROOCHES

Haselgrove, C. C. 1987, Iron Age brooch deposition and chronology in Haselgrove &

Gwilt (eds) Reconstructing Iron Age Societies. Oxbow Monograph 71, 51-73).

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LATE HALLSTATT period (800-500 BC)

Hull, M.R. and Hawkes, C. F. C. 1987. Corpus of Ancient Brooches in Britain. BAR

168, Oxford.

Group A (two-piece)

• 1100-800BC

• leaf-shaped bow running to large wire spiral at each end.

• developed on the North-European plain.

• only one example, with a suspect locality known from this country.

Group AA (Vioin-bow)

• one-piece

• normally with a decorated bow

• single example from Britain (Avebury Down) differs from type’s Continental

norm.

Group B

• typically Italian

• mostly with leech-shaped bow, either as at first, quite slender, but then

thickens.

• catchplate always short

• unilateral spring of one, or occasionally two coils

• decoration in patterns of grooves on the bow, occasionally with dot-in-circle

stamps

• according to Hull & Hawkes findspot on channel-coast counties.

• around 800BC.

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Group C

• Leech-shaped and boat-shaped brooches with long foot and catch

• Italian

• c.800-750BC

• later variants are Cushion-bow and Knee brooches of late 7th to early 6

th BC

Group D, E, F (knobbed)

• date from late 7th – 5

th centuries BC.

• Group E has arched and leaf-shaped bow

• Group F are heavier and with arched and triple-knobbed bow and very long

foot

Group D Group E

Group G

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• ‘Serpentine’ forms.

• dating more controversial, but probably sometime in 6th-5

th centuries BC.

Group H

• ‘Spectacle’ and ‘double-Spectacle’ brooches

• made from multi-coiled spirals of wire with pin beneath

• the four examples in Hull & Hawkes all have locations considered as spurious

Group J

• late forms with unilateral spring

• bow arched or gently curving

• 6th – 5

th century BC

Group K

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• crossbar head, toe of foot up-turned and bearing disc

• 5th century BC

Madley, Herefordshire (NMGW-8809A8)

Group Lx (Late Hallstatt continental features)

Group L (British Late Hallstatt derivative)

• innovating features

• often mock springs or mock-spring hinges

IOW-4DA383

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Aylesford, Kent BERK-91FC62 – Tetsworth, Oxon.

LA TÈNE BROOCHES Terminology can be confusing as sometimes people talk about La Tene I, II and III or

A, B, C and D. The letter system is preferable as it gives finer chronological detail.

La Tene A (or 1) (475-400 BC)

• the foot reverts to the bow.

• the bow is well-arched and normally made in one piece with the pin.

• the spring of large coils (4, but occasionally 6 coils) is bilateral and the chord

is external.

• characterised by no attachment between the foot which bends back towards

the bow

• Type 1Aa and 1Ab known with mock springs or mock spring hinges

• the foot’s terminal feature defines the sub classifications:

o 1Aa – terminal feature is with no protruding snout. Dates to 450-

400BC and could have been in contemporaneous use with Group L

brooches for a short time

o 1Ab – terminal feature with snout

o 1Aa and 1Ab could be decorated similarly with geometric patterns

(zigzag, dotted band, dot-centred circles, palmette fronds (very

occasionally)

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La Tene B (400-275 BC)

Type 1B • spring of coils nearly always smaller than coils of type 1A

• the foot is reverted mostly level

• type 1B brooches are decorated similarly to type 1A

• varied terminals……

o 1Ba – foot has simple terminal feature with either snout or other

protusion. Rounded in form, either ball or disc.

o The ‘Wessex’ form of Type 1Ba has a rod or tube through the spring

which may be a mock spring

o 1Bb – foot has terminal feature with snout or bifid protrusion adapted

to bow. This feature is often a disc with a flat upper surface

o 1Bc – resembles 1Bb, but the bow is slightly arched, is leaf-

shaped and flat. Frequently with grooved decoration in pointed oval

motif

Lane End, Bucks. (BUC-E0D317)

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o 1Bd – classed as the ‘Dux’ type in Britain. The arched bow is more often long or of

medium length than short and is gently curved. Variously decorated with incised or

dotted designs or with transverse mouldings.

Type 1C

• 3rd century BC

• bow is low-arched or straight

• most have foot with terminal feature ending in a snout

• occasionally inlaid with coral

• the bow of later forms is flatter

Type 1CA – bow low-arched or straight

Deal, Kent

Type 1Cb

• low-arched or straight bow.

• Foot reverted level with bow

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LA TÈNE C (300-100 BC)

Hull’s Type 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D

• the foot of La Tène II brooches was extended, bent backwards and clasped to

the bow

Type 2A

• has early Continental forms in close British imitations

• everted foot meets the bow by being sharply bent over to approach it at a slant

• low or straight bow in iron or copper-alloy

• divided into type 2Aa ‘Wetwang-Otford with foot reverted and slanting

and....

• type 2Ab Sawdon-Cold Kitchen with foot reverted level, bow straight and

collar on foot (when iron) or with disc and collar (when in copper-alloy)

Type 2Aa

Type 2Ab

Type 2B

• ‘decorative inventive forms peculiar to Britain’

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• extremely diverse decorative features

• some decorated with imported glass beads, coral, amber

Mill Heal, Deal, Kent

LANCUM-520697

Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria

o Type 2Ba with foot pressed to bow though not with attachment

o Type 2Bb – foot slanting to bow and affixed or cast in one with it

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o Type 2Bc – foot cast in one with bow, anomalous forms

o Type 2Bd – foot and head flat, each broadened into plate, bowed in

middle . Upper surface set with strps of inlay

Type 2C Involuted brooches

• bow and pin curved down

• reverted foot may be free of the bow and either attached to it or cast or forged

in one with it

• the pin often turns on a ‘ring-hinge’ which consists of a small number of

close-set rings

• decoration with inlay and bosses in coral or other materials

• many examples in iron

• particular concentration in East Yorkshire

• divided into two types -

• 2Ca involutes gently and is either short or quite long

• 2Cb involuted in pronounced or tight curve and mostly short or extremely

short

• dating from late 3rd century to 2

nd century BC

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Wentbridge, West Yorks.

(SWYOR-399938).

La Tene II (Hull Types 3A to 3D)

• La Tène II brooches of Continental forms adopted post the early Type 2A in

Britain

• form more similar to La Tene III types but the end of the foot is still clasped to

the bow

• more or less wire-like bow

• bow curves down to meet the catch

• 3A is early 3rd century BC

• Type 3C always with foot’s end wrapped around the bow

• usually with a long spring collar to secure the foot on the bow

• the brooch illustrated below from Deal, Kent is a variant of Hull and Hawke’s

• Type 3B

• Distributed mainly in southwest England where it is followed by a La Tène III

version

Colchester, Essex

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Deal, Kent

Type 4

• multi-looped wire forming the bow or set along its top

• not common

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LATE IRON AGE BROOCHES

By S. Worrell

- imports from the Continent dating from the 1

st C BC to the Conquest usually

in the lands of the Cantii, Trinovantes, Catuvellauni, Iceni, Durotriges,

Atrebates.

- more than a hint that it was the elite in these areas who adopted such things.

- differential appearance of types across Britain, in the north, the Trumpet and

Headstud stand out as hardly any earlier brooches there.

- during the 2nd

century brooches were less tied to specific areas than they had

been

- great period of brooch wearing ended in the 2nd

century. Bow brooches ceased

to be made in the period AD 150-75. Change in the 2nd

century should be

related to a change in dress, and some brooches continued to be worn into the

3rd

century.

- after the 3rd century, British brooches are either indistinguishable from those

worn on the Continent (except Penannulars) or are not worn.

- in the 4th century hard to be sure that there are regional variations at all, but

more likely provincial distributions.

BIRDLIP (also known as Beaked Bow)

- Date: 30 BC-AD 60

- thought to be a British variant of the continental Flügelfibeln brooch

- sprung or hinged with hinged examples being later.

- bilateral four coil spring with internal chord, a rectangular catch –plate which

can be perforated or not

- boss on the bow which can be a pronounced hook or beak moulding at the

collar

- an expanded trumpet-like head covering the spring.

- straight or low asymmetrically curved profile.

- a few examples have no moulding other than the simple beak but others have

elaborate moulded, sometimes zoomorphic decoration on the bow and head.

- the ‘eye’ motif recurs frequently.

- examples uncommonly occur in precious metals such as two gold brooches

known from Market Rasen and Normanby-le-Wold, Lincs. (TAR 2003, no.

24).

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Dragonby, N. Lincs. Hattatt IARB, 101

La Tène III Knotenfibeln (Boss-on-Bow types)

• Date; 50-100 BC

• also known as Almgren 65, Ettlinger 1973, type 8, Feugère 1985, type 8

• derived from La Tène Type 3 brooch whose foot is clasped to the bow by a

collar

• four coil spring, internal or external chord, catchplate frequently open

• collars include large sometimes elaborately decorated bosses as well as simple

mouildingsrestricted to the upper surface of the bow

• occasionally the head is in the form of an expanded trumpet

• iron examples, but not bronze in use after AD1 at King Harry Lane, St Albans

Deal, Kent Deal, Kent

NAUHEIM

Date: 2nd half of the 1

st century BC and run into Augustan-Tiberian times. Nauheim

proper floruit was essentially in the 2nd

half of the first century BC.

- size is an indication of date – large brooches are more likely to have

been made before c. AD 40-50 than after.

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- the classic Nauheim has a triangular bow with a continuous taper to a

pointed foot, a triangular catchplate with a piercing. British examples have

a more slender bow, rocker-arm ornament and four-sided piercings which

are almost trapezoidal, generally smaller than those on the Continent

- all Nauheims have an open catchplate - examples with external chords are dated to the 1

st century BC.

Deal, Kent

SIMPLE GAULISH Date: early – 3

rd quarter of 1

st century AD

- Continental form. Two main groups; a) broad flat ribbon bow b) wire or rod

bow which are usually quite long (c. 73mm) , low, generally straight profile

and taper to a point at the foot.

- examples with finely fretted catchplates are early and concentrate in Herts

and Essex.

- examples with rectilinear perforated catchplates have a more extensive

distribution into the south-west.

- the simpler form with circular perforations through the catchplate is a post

Conquest development, centred in southern rather than eastern England.

Mill Hill, Deal, Kent

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Dragonby, N. Lincs Mill Hill, Deal, Kent

BIRDLIP (also known as Beaked Bow)

- Date: 30 BC-AD 60

- thought to be a British variant of the continental Flügelfibeln brooch

- sprung or hinged with hinged examples being later.

- bilateral four coil spring with internal chord, a rectangular catch –plate which

can be perforated or not

- boss on the bow which can be a pronounced hook or beak moulding at the

collar

- an expanded trumpet-like head covering the spring.

- straight or low asymmetrically curved profile.

- a few examples have no moulding other than the simple beak but others have

elaborate moulded, sometimes zoomorphic decoration on the bow and head.

- the ‘eye’ motif recurs frequently.

- examples uncommonly occur in precious metals such as two gold brooches

known from Market Rasen and Normanby-le-Wold, Lincs. (TAR 2003, no.

24).

Dragonby (Olivier xxxx) Hattatt IARB 101

STRIP

Date: origin is probably the last quarter of 1st century BC but floruit is 25-60/70 AD

- hinged pin, head rolled under to house the axis bar.

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- Decorative designs appears to copy that derived from the Nauheim derivative

form, the Langton Down form (referred to as the Maiden Castle type) and the

Aucissa

- decoration can consist of buried ridges, punched to produce a wavy line

grooves.

- The family of Strip brooches belongs to Avon-Dorset-Wiltshire with outliers

in the regions around, although outliers also occur further north.

Maiden Castle type

Greyhound Yard, Dorset Wanborough, Wilts.

NAUHEIM-DERIVATIVE

- Date: 10-100 AD, occurring commonly during the middle of 1st century AD

- specifically a British development, probably evolved from the typologically

earlier La Tene III brooch and several recorded in pre-Conquest contexts.

- remained popular during the mid-1st century AD across much of southern and

eastern England.

- also referred to as Simple Wire brooches or ‘Drahtfibel’ in some reports

- simple one-piece brooches with a wire or flattened bow.

- all have a four-(or occasionally 3-) coil springs, an internal chord and a solid

catchplate

- although there are a number of common denominators, there is also

considerable variation in the shape, profile and cross-section of the bow

which is sometimes decorated.

- 4- (or 3) coil springs the absent coil is always at the beginning of the spring

and the distribution favours south-east England, particularly Kent, Essex and

Hertfordshire.

- connected by an internal chord, a usually plain and undecorated bow and a

solid and unperforated catchplate. For 3-coil springs the absent coil is always

at the beginning of the spring and the distribution favours south-east England,

particularly Kent, Essex and Hertfordshire.

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- these brooches do not have a high arched profile and they may or may not

have a reverse-curve towards the foot.

- produced in both iron and copper-alloy.

- iron examples often with straight profile, an integral catchplate and usually

with a right-angled turn at the head Iron brooches and brooches with straight

profiles are quite early in the sequence and date to the 1st half of the 1

st century

AD, although mid-late 1st century AD is also possible.

- there is considerable variation of form and several sub-groups.

- may be sub-divided by bow profile in combination with catch-plate form.

- brooches with a wire bow of round or oval cross-section, a curved bow

profile with an inturned head and a catch-plate that is integral with the bow

profile. Those with bordering grooves and rocker-arm ornament down the

triangular upper bow, but without the framed catchplate are pre-conquest in

manufacture and none are likely to have survived to 75 AD.

- generally distributed south and east of the Severn-Trent line. Only a few are

from definite pre-Conquest contexts (Skeleton Green, Braughing, Bagendon,

Frocester Court).

- undecorated, or with central grooved decoration or with stamped motifs

have a distribution largely concentrated in central southern England thinning

out away from the Thames valley into the southern Midlands and to the

north-east. This type is dated to shortly after the Conquest and also probably

ran on until c. 60-70 AD.

- distribution centred in Atrebatic lands mainly in Hampshire and Berkshire

and some in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, where there was a very low

incidence of Colchester brooches. This type of brooch should be seen as a

mark of that tribe.

- those brooches with a short bow which tapers to a pointed foot and catchplate

and with simple decoration are likely to be post-Conquest.

- Nauheim-derivatives do not have a high arched profile and they may or may

not have a reverse-curve towards the foot.

- produced in both iron and copper-alloy.

- iron examples often with straight profile, an integral catchplate and usually

with a right-angled turn at the head Iron brooches and brooches with straight

profiles are quite early in the sequence and date to the 1st half of the 1

st century

AD, although mid-late 1st century AD is also possible.

- may be sub-divided by bow profile in combination with catch-plate form.

- brooches with a wire bow of round or oval cross-section, a curved bow

profile with an inturned head and a catch-plate that is integral with the bow

profile. Those with bordering grooves and rocker-arm ornament down the

triangular upper bow, but without the framed catchplate are pre-conquest in

manufacture and none are likely to have survived to 75 AD.

- generally distributed south and east of the Severn-Trent line. Only a few are

from definite pre-Conquest contexts (Skeleton Green, Braughing, Bagendon,

Frocester Court).

- undecorated, or with central grooved decoration or with stamped motifs have a

distribution largely concentrated in central southern England thinning out

away from the Thames valley into the southern Midlands and to the north-east.

This type is dated to shortly after the Conquest and also probably ran on until

c. 60-70 AD.

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- brooches with stamped decoration have a distribution centred in Atrebatic

lands mainly in Hampshire and Berkshire and some in Gloucestershire and

Wiltshire, where there was a very low incidence of Colchester brooches. This

type of brooch should be seen as a mark of that tribe.

- the brooches with a short bow which tapers to a pointed foot and catchplate

and with simple decoration are likely to be post-Conquest.

-

Simple wire bow form Derivative with flat-sectioned bow

D-sectioned bow form Expanded bow form

-

Flat triangular bow form

- flat-sectioned, triangular bow represents the true form of the Nauheim-

derivative brooch.

- a type local to Hampshire and Sussex has a bow with a broad top and tapers

to a narrow foot. The upper bow frequently has a series of nicks down each

side and the lower third has cross-cuts which leaves a broad area with

chamfers on each side. The catchplate is very distinctive with a thin strip of

metal running at right angles to the bow and ending in a small return. Date:

2nd

half of the 1st century.

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Chichester, W. Sussex (FASW-388203)

Basingstoke, Hants. (HAMP1872)

COLCHESTER Date: 25-60 AD

- one-piece brooch with 6, 8, or 10-coil integral springs issuing from the back of

the head with external chord held under the forward-facing hook

- short plain wings and either a narrow, round-sectioned or flat-sectioned bow.

The bow is normally slightly curved, but early features are a nearly straight

bow-profile or a finely fretted catchplate with multiple openings (often with

four rectilinear perforations separated by a narrow stepped bridge work; those

with 3 rectilinear perforations occur in southern and eastern Britain from

Humber estuary to Dorset, but are dominant in St Albans and Colchester).

- where the hook holding the chord is very broad and short a Continental origin

is likely. British examples have a long hook with a more bar-like section. - Colchester brooches with very thin sections occur at the beginning of their

period of use and imitate the Continental forms which had very short hooks,

which are usually flat in section.

- the bow is frequently hexagonal in section giving a slightly facetted

appearance (this should be recorded). Examples with facetted bows occur

from Verulamium to the north as far as the Humber.

- rocker-arm decoration occasionally on catchplates. Circular holes and

decoration on the return of the catch point a late date.

- Colchester brooches frequently have a red/brown patina and can be very are

susceptible to corrosion

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- decoration on the bow of a Colchester suggests a late date since decoration is

more typical of Colchester derivatives.

-

Marlowe Car Park, Canterbury Hacheston, Suffolk (Plouviez

2004)

LANGTON DOWN Date: AD 25-60

- Continental origin and entering Britain in quantity before the Conquest.

- separately made spring housed in a cylindrical sheet metal case formed from

flanges cast along the top and bottom edges of the wings.

- the head is convex curved and the bow often has a sharp angle at the top where

it joins the spring case and there are sometimes cross-grooves on the angled

top of the bow.

- the bow usually has a straight profile. The catchplate often has perforations,

often triangular.

- the bow is frequently reeded giving it a very distinctive appearance, although

plain bows also occur. The fully reeded type has a curved splayed top and

more than one decorative scheme is possible.

- other decorative motifs include distinctive punched decoration in the form of

scrolls, rosettes and wavy lines (tends to be an east Midlands distribution for

that particular decoration)

- an alternative type has a flat section and a squared-off top with the head

having a right-angled turn and the junction between the bow and spring cover

is straight. The front of the brooch has vertical elements which may be flutes,

ridges or bead rows or a combination. This is less common and shorter than

the form whose head is convex curved.

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Skeleton Green, Herts. Marlowe Car Park, Canterbury

Basingstoke, Hampshire (HAMP1873)

Langton Down variant: ‘Nertomarus’ type This variant has the same wings, spring mechanism and form of bow which is

not reeded. The head has moulded motifs consisting of two opposing, slightly

diagonal lines with the top end curled round, either side of a triangular motif made up

of three conjoined circles.

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Wanborough, Wilts.

ROSETTE/THISTLE Date: AD 20-60

- Thistle and Rosette brooches are developed from the P-shaped disc-threaded

brooches with spring covers, but with broader, reeded bow of the Langton

Down type.

- the bow has a marked recurve and is threaded through a disc at the point of

inflection. Tubular spring-case wrapped around the spring with a slot at the

back for the pin.

- circular discs or rhomboid plaques can be separate and threaded on an angle

between the bow and foot and often carried a separate, perforated apliqué

framework.

- later forms have the disc as only the upper part of a footplate and the bow is

riveted through it.

- hinged variants may have lasted in to the 2nd

century. Probably almost

exclusively Roman in date.

-

Developed rosette, Hacheston, Suffolk

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- Thistle – circular discs, rhomboid plaques can be separate and threaded on an

angle between the bow and foot and often carried a separate, perforated

apliqué framework.

Dragonby, N. Lincs. Marlowe Car Park, Canterbury

-

Skeleton Green, Herts.

-

- Lion bow (leontomorphe)

- is a variant of the Rosette brooch dating to AD 25-60

- consists of three distinct parts, an upper spring case and bow, a rosette plate,

and a lower foot and catchplate, all held together by a central rivet

-

Marlowe Car Park, Canterbury Barking, Suffolk (SF-7B02F4)

Keyhole type

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- 1st century AD to AD 50

- main concentration lies in eastern Britain north of the Thames, but this form

also occurs in the south and west.

Maiden Castle type

Greyhound Yard, Dorchester

KNICKFIBELN

• related to Simple Gaulish brooches

• dated on the Continent to the first half 1st century AD

• unusual in Britain and probably introduced at the conquest but may have been

earlier

Richborough, Kent (Bayley & Butcher 2004, 58, no. 36, fig. 41)

BAGENDON Date – 10-60 AD

- related to the Aucissa but with a lower curved bow and with iron bars threaded

through it.

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Fishbourne, W. Sussex Dragonby, N. Lincs

AUCISSA Date: 25-75 AD

- the head is rolled forward under and over the axis bar of the hinged pin. The

axis bar usually has end knobs. The bow has a very distinctive highly arched

‘P-shaped’ profile and there is usually a rounded foot knob.

- bow decoration includes a long, central rib which is often knurled and flanked

by a beaded row or a zig-zag ornament running down the central spine

- an early derivative has well-marked ‘eyes’ on the head and signs of an extra

element on either side of the central beaded row.

- as well as the maker’s mark ‘AVCISS’, other manufacturers include

‘ATGIVIOS’ and ‘TARRA’ and some brooches have small leaf-stamps on the

head.

Marlowe car Park, Canterbury (Mackreth 1995) Whitchurch, Hampshire

(hamp 3776)